Sir Keir Starmer was left squirming this afternoon after a Tory MP demanded to know why he hasn’t removed the whip from Dawn Butler after her comments about Kemi Badenoch.
The far-left Labour backbencher sparked outrage on Saturday, shortly after Ms Badenoch’s Tory leadership election victory, when she shared a tweet describing Ms Badenoch as “white supremacy in blackface”.
The retweeted post also accused Ms Badenoch, Britain’s first black female party leader, of being a “member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”.
At PMQs today, newly-elected Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty laid into the PM over his inaction following the comment.
He asked: “Does the PM really think it is acceptable for a backbench MP to suggest that the leader of the opposition represents ‘white supremacy in blackface’ and is ‘the most prominent member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class’ with all the race-traitor innuendo that that carries?”
He added: “If he doesn’t, why hasn’t he removed the whip?”
The Prime Minister flippantly responded: “No I don’t”, leaving MPs audibly asking why he hasn’t therefore sacked Ms Butler.
Ms Butler swiftly deleted the retweet after facing immediate backlash.
At the weekend former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng told GB News: “She has a history of this.”
“On a personal level, I’ve always got along with her, but her race-baiting is completely absurd. You can imagine that if Kemi had lost, she would’ve said exactly the same thing.
“She would’ve said, ‘Of course, Kemi lost because the Tories are racist, and Britain is racist.’ Now that she’s won, she’s still calling it racist. This is madness.”
“I genuinely believe that, given what she’s said, she should have the whip removed.
“There should be some disciplinary action against this… she’s accusing Kemi, incredibly, of being a sort of front for white supremacy. I mean, that’s literally what she’s suggested.”
Ms Badenoch had her first outing as Tory leader at PMQs this lunchtime, tearing into Foreign Secretary David Lammy’s history of anti-Donald Trump comments.
The leader of the opposition came out swinging, demanding that the Prime Minister apologise on his behalf.
The new Tory leader highlighted tweets by the Foreign Secretary sent during the Republican’s first term in office, in which he called him a “racist and KKK/neo-Nazi sympathiser”.
Ms Badenoch demanded to know whether Mr Lammy personally apologised for the remarks during their recent dinner in New York, and if not whether the PM would now say sorry on his behalf.
She added: “I’m very sure that President Trump will soon be calling to thank him for sending all of those north London Labour activists to campaign for his opponent.”
